To ask if you feel you morally deserve your wealth

[Nc1028]

No judgment, genuinely interested (and bored!)

Read about the idea that people want to have money but also want to believe that they morally deserve the money. For example, those who earned their wealth are more likely to believe they deserve it because of hard work, whereas those who inherited wealth are more likely to feel guilty. Stay-at-home partners also tended to feel guilty if their partners are high earners/have inherited wealth when they haven’t earned/inherited wealth themselves. Everyone try to emphasise on their productiveness, not wanting to be cast as “rich and lazy”.

Wondering what people think?
If you have money, do you think you deserve what you have?
Do you think people who have a lot more money deserve what they have?

(Light hearted. Yes your money is none of anyone’s business but money is such a taboo topic, fun to talk about)

It's just luck and age (being able to buy a cheap property at 25)

I'm not smarter than anyone, I don't work very hard. I've just been very lucky.

There are millions of children who will never get social mobility - we have the worst social mobility in a 100 years!

Apart from anecdotes (which aren't data) if you start poor you will END UP POOR

Yes. Earned every penny. Hard work and self made ‘luck’.

I think it is so influenced by what, as a society, we value. So those involved in wealth generation are valued above all others, bearing in mind we are in a capitalist society. Of course we need wealth to sustain public services but culturally we seem to value money for money's sake rather than a way of improving life for everyone. My DP has spent 40 years saving people's lives but this doesn't mean we are rich. No, he's not a Doctor- there are plenty of other health workers at the sharp end and none of them earn as much as they deserve. Is he morally better than those who choose a career in banking? An interesting question and definitely one that my 15 yr old DD would have an opinion on as she is keen to follow her Dad into the healthcare sphere.

I worked as a PA for Venture Capitalists many moons ago and left after a couple of years as I got fed up hearing young men moaning because their million pound bonus should have been at least two million!

Another pp said something along the lines of "as long as you work I don't make any judgement ". I find this v interesting as I have been medically retired for 10 years and will likely never be fit for any kind of work again. Does that mean that me and people like me are of no value to society? Tory government certainly think we are just scroungers. Needless to say I don't agree we them but being in my position has made we realise how much our sense of worth is influenced by our perceived "Market value " - whether that be moral or monetary. We don't make choices in a vacuum. I can completely understand those who are born into poverty wanting to accrue enough wealth to insulate themselves and their families from this (what my old boss used to call the "F Off Factor "). Coming from a family with a hundred years of Methodism behind them worshipping the acquisition of wealth was anathema to them.

Sorry that got a bit deep- but I think our choices are so heavily influenced by our personal history and family culture and our ability to achieve within these choices depends on a huge amount of luck in terms of the genetic lottery, good mental and physical health alongside a strong work ethic. So basically a huge variety of factors that result in some being wealthier than others which has little to do with how deserving you are.

I don't think it's even a moral issue unless you're talking about gaining money through criminality. However, wealth from work, business, investments is a product of hard work and luck.

Even just the pure luck having good mental and physical health and a loving supportive family. I think a lot of people have these things and don't realise how much it has helped them to succeed.

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts and stories. Really interesting to see many different perspectives.

A little bit about my story and why I asked if anyone’s interested to hear. I grew up poor but had good opportunities through my parents’ hard work and luck, ended up marrying someone who happened to be at the right place and right time, and now has a bit of wealth which I consider excessive. I’ve felt guilty, morally wrong to have this excessive wealth that I did not earn. Having a qualitative (phenomenology) research background, I naturally did some literature review on this phenomenon, and I thought it would be interesting to open up a space to talk about it here, almost like a mini virtual group discussion. I guess I both want to see if others had similar experiences to mine, or had vastly different perspectives.
Again, thanks everyone who shared - so much richness and poignancy

I don't think about it as a moral issue. I do know that DH started a tiny business 30 years ago, and that I paid our living costs for the first three years until it started to make money, from what I earned. Now we are nearly 65, we shall sell the enterprise we started to retire. We have not inherited money (DH £0, me £3k from GPs and £400.00 from maternal grandma (spent on a big garden table). For years, we have cancelled social engagements at the last minute and dropped everything to deliver last minute customer orders and suddenly we don't have to anymore, and if anyone is jealous of the hard hours that have been put in, feel free to start your own company. There is only one place that money and success come before work.... in a dictionary.